“And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.” Zechariah 14:12 NKJV
A question that has often crossed my mind when studying biblical prophecy is, considering so much of it has yet to occur, exactly what went through the minds of the Old Testament prophets when they were shown events three thousand years or so in the future? What must Zechariah have thought when God gave him this vision and told him to write what he saw. While we, on the one hand, can easily understand being familiar with twenty first century technology, what possible explanation could Zechariah have had seeing people die in this manner?
The Hebrew word translated “dissolve” here is “maqaq” which literally means to melt. In other words, Zechariah watched people melt away and “dissolve” while standing on their own two feet. Again, understanding that this prophecy is yet future, I can only come up with one possible explanation for what could cause this to happen. Most all scholars agree that what the prophet saw was the effects of a nuclear blast that is yet to come. While that conclusion might come as a surprise to many, considering again that it occurs in the future there really is no other reasonable explanation.
When I first began to study this particular subject, it actually surprised me a little bit to find how many other prophecies in the Old Testament seemingly refer to the use of nuclear weapons. As I thought more about this, I came to realize that this is a perfect response to those who question the veracity of biblical prophecy in that it so accurately describes the technology which exists today and was unfathomable to the world three thousand years ago. Considering that virtually anyone familiar with the news lately knows how often the threat of using nuclear weapons is reported, I thought today I would share just a little of what I have found in prophecy which seems to speak to this subject.
Since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, speculation has run rampant about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons. To be sure, these questions are legitimate, especially considering the rhetoric coming from Russia itself and their threats to use them if they feel they are justified in doing so. While the world waits to see what tomorrow brings, many believers have asked if the Bible has anything to say about the possibility of these types of weapons being used in regards to end time prophecy. After much study, and speaking on this subject for many years, my conclusion on the use of these types of weapons is that it is not a question of if, but when.
While this may come as a surprise to some, what I will attempt to do today is simply share just a few of many passages in the Bible which I believe will shed some light on what the future holds. The first question that I had when I started my study was simply how in the world would a prophet from the Old Testament describe the weaponry and technology from the twenty first century? The truth is, he could only describe what he saw based on what he knew from the times he was living in. If you keep that in mind, much of what we read can begin to make sense when applied to our current situation in the twenty-first century.
Zechariah was not the only prophet to see things he more than likely found difficult to understand. Jeremiah and Ezekiel also had visions that certainly hint at the use of nuclear weaponry. Consider this from the prophet Jeremiah.
“For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon An assembly of great nations from the north country, And they shall array themselves against her; From there she shall be captured. Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; None shall return in vain.” Jeremiah 50:9 NKJV
Here we find a prophecy of the end times when Babylon will be judged and Israel restored. The tools God uses to judge Babylon consist of an “assembly of great nations from the north”. Since the setting is the end times, it seems logical we can assume Russia might be a large part of this alliance. What is interesting here though, is that we are given a strange description of the weapons used rather than the men who use them. The following is an excerpt from some notes I have from Chuck Missler teaching on this passage many years ago.
“Smart weapons” are implied in Jeremiah 50:9, where: … their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain. The word “arrow” is chets, which can mean a dart, arrow, or javelin; or, “any missile fired from an engine of war.” In the Septuagint, the Greek boli.j can mean anything thrown: a missile, such as an arrow or javelin. Notice, however, that the adjective clause “as of a mighty expert man” is a descriptor of the arrow, not the shooter of the arrow. The key Hebrew word is sakal, which means prudent, wise, circumspect; with insight and comprehension. It is the arrow itself that has the intelligence! This, indeed, is further emphasized in the final clause: “...none shall return in vain.” They can’t miss! Sounds like “smart weapons”-guided missiles or smart bombs. And this was written over two thousand years ago! http://www.khouse.org/articles/2001/344/
While this description of the delivery method is certainly intriguing, our question today is about the payload and if it could possibly be nuclear. An interesting passage whose meaning has been debated for years is found in the book of Ezekiel and his prophecy of the coming conflict with the nation of Israel. Many believe, and I tend to agree, that what Ezekiel is trying to convey is a nuclear exchange between Magog and an unnamed country.
“And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.“ Ezekiel 39:6 NKJV
The term “send fire” in the Hebrew is “shaw-lakh’ aysh” and is used to describe judgment, and in the context of this verse it obviously comes from God. Yet the first interesting thing about this passage is that it makes clear that the fire falls on two nations, not just Magog. The debate has, for the most part, always surrounded the possible identification of the unnamed country being the United States.,considering that this conflict occurs in the end times and that by using the term coastlands Ezekiel is describing a country unknown at that time and located at the farthest reaches of the world.
The most interesting part of this passage, however, comes next.
“It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog. “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. “Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified,” says the Lord GOD. “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. “The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog.” Ezekiel 39:12-15 NKJV
I probably am not alone in thinking this may be one of the strangest passages in scripture. I often wonder if Ezekiel also thought these words didn’t make a lot of sense to him when he wrote them, trying to describe something he couldn’t possibly understand. Look carefully with me as I try to explain what I believe we are being told here. The first, and most important fact to consider, is that these events have yet to take place. That means we must think in terms of the world’s current technology to understand what is being described. “Fire” falls on Magog and his allies as they attempt to invade the nation of Israel. In verse 4 of chapter 39 Ezekiel tells us that “all” of the troops will fall implying none will survive the fire that falls, which obviously makes one wonder exactly what is this fire?
The next clue is the statement that the dead will be given their own special burial place rather than being buried where they fell. This place will be so large as to “obstruct travelers” implying a detour around the valley. It will take seven months just to gather the dead and bury them in this valley but even more interesting is what comes after. Israel will employ a special force of men whose job is solely to search for remains. Even stranger is the fact that when they find bones or remains they do not touch them but set a marker by them so that other specialized “buriers” can collect and bury them.
Many believe what Ezekiel is trying to describe here is the cleanup in the aftermath of a nuclear weapon being used on the battlefield. While some might disagree, I think it is more than just coincidence that the procedures Ezekiel describes here are almost identical to the current standard operation of collection and disposal of nuclear or biological contaminated remains on the battlefield as laid out by the US Army in their publication Operator’s Manual for Marking Set Contamination: Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC).
I have had occasion to wonder if Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Zechariah, at some point in time wondered why God chose them to see these visions of the future, and the strange things they saw and tried their best to describe. Here is yet another one we find early on in Zechariah’s book.
“Then I turned and raised my eyes, and saw there a flying scroll. And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.” Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: ‘Every thief shall be expelled,’ according to this side of the scroll; and, ‘Every perjurer shall be expelled,’ according to that side of it.” “I will send out the curse,” says the LORD of hosts; “It shall enter the house of the thief And the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It shall remain in the midst of his house And consume it, with its timber and stones.” Zechariah 5:1-4 NKJV
The word in the Hebrew for scroll is “megillah”, which we understand to be a long sheet of parchment that is rolled up and placed in an ornate cylinder for safekeeping. Then of course, I looked closer at the dimensions of the scroll Zechariah saw and was surprised to find that the size he describes, if rolled up and put in its container, would be approximately 30 feet tall and 5 feet in diameter which is very comparable to the size of many ICBM’s around the world today.
Now if you are starting to believe this is a stretch, stay with me a little longer as we examine this text a little closer with that possibility in mind. Zechariah goes on to call it a “curse”, which is present throughout the whole earth, and tells us it will not only enter a house, but completely consume it, “timber and stones”. So now we have to consider just what the nature of this curse could be if it is able to do exactly what Zechariah describes. Since a normal detonation of a typical explosion only produces power capable of destroying a structure, we have to ask the question what sort of payload is capable of actually consuming it. Believe it or not, Zechariah tells us what it is.
“Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.” So I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “It is a basket that is going forth.” He also said, “This is their resemblance throughout the earth: “Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket”; then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover over its mouth.” Zechariah 5:5-8 NKJV
Now before some of you decide to have some fun explaining how a woman could be a curse, there is something about Hebrew you need to know. In the Hebrew, the word for woman is ish·shä' , but the word used for fire, especially a sacrificial burnt offering, is also ish·shä'. Confused? I as well, but this is one of those times when the meaning is determined by the context, and most of the Hebrew scholars I found believe the meaning here is of fire. I think too, you will agree, that fire seems to be a better explanation for the type of destruction described.
The word for basket used here is “ephah”, which typically describes the baskets commonly used at that time to carry a measure of grain or other commodities. What is different here is that Zechariah tells us that not only does it carry the fire, it is made of lead. In the Hebrew Masoretic text, we are told the lead disk lifted up is a “talent” of lead which would be approximately one hundred pounds. Now if just the lid is that heavy, how heavy is the rest of the container? Not to mention the most intriguing question of all; what sort of “fire” needs to be shielded by lead in this day and age?
“Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. So I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they carrying the basket?” And he said to me, “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar; when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base.” Zechariah 5:9-11 NKJV
Of course, although these “megillahs” are said to go forth to all the earth, Zechariah goes on to tell us that the base of operations in the future will be in the land of Shinar, which is translated as the country of two rivers, or what later became known as Babylonia. Of course, as we are told in scripture, the rebuilt Babylon will be the center of the coming anti-Christ’s power so it seems to make perfect sense he will have this sort of weaponry to unleash upon the whole earth. Would he actually use nuclear weapons to advance his cause? If you look closely at what is described to occur during that period of time soon to come, I believe the answer is self-evident.
Does the future of this world include the use of nuclear weapons? In my humble opinion the Word of God certainly seems to tell us that. Of course, my next question to you is does that really seem that hard to believe based on what we see occurring in the world at the present time? I am convinced that it is not a question of if, but when. Yet I also believe that it is not something for believers to be concerned about because it is also my opinion that we will be gone, raptured into heaven to be with Jesus before this ever takes place. There is a saying that has made the rounds in Christian circles which says simple that “when the bombs come down, we go up”. Will that prove to be the case? Only time will tell but I am also certain that we are going to find out in our very immediate future.
If you have never made the decision to accept that free gift I encourage you to do so today. Simply ask God to forgive you of your sin based on your belief that Jesus died to pay the price for your sin, and turn over control of your life to Him. You can do that right now by praying a prayer just like this one;
Dear Father in heaven, I believe in your son Jesus. I believe that He died on the cross for my sins, that He rose up from the grave, and that my sins are forgiven. Forgive me of my sin, help me to walk with you, and thank you for saving me. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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